Now alone and confused there was really only one option. She turned in the direction Nardi indicated and started walking. The trail was well defined, but narrow, like a well-worn footpath. The air was warm and despite there being no wind the grass around her swayed gently. After about fifteen minutes of uninterrupted walking she spotted a tall tree in the distance. It was the only break in the endless grassland and the path appeared to lead straight for it.

  Picking up the pace to a light jog the tree quickly grew closer. As it became clearer she realized there was roughly a dozen or so people gathered around it. As she entered the circular clearing that surrounded the tree she noticed most of them were gathered in groups of two or three and appeared to be talking, with only a few standing by themselves. As she passed she attempted to catch some of their conversations, but the words they spoke were oddly distorted. Choosing not to linger she walked up to the tree. The smooth bark covering its thick trunk was a deep red and the leaves appeared to be tiny flames.

  As she stared up at the tree, movement drew her gaze back to its trunk. A broadly built man stepped out from behind it. At first she thought, and maybe hoped, it was Nardi again. But one look at the man quickly disproved that. While he was tall and well muscled, his skin was a much deeper red, and his long silver hair and beard danced around his head like open flames. He had no weapon and was clad in a simple white roman style toga with silver detailing. He smiled at her, the lines around his eyes indicating he was much older than his physique initially led her to believe. He stepped forward spreading his arms wide.

  “Welcome my children. I am Ignis. Please come closer, it is time for your test of rebirth,” the others quickly drew near, forming a semicircle around him. Excited chatter was exchanged, but she still couldn't understand a word of it. Ignis extended one of his hands toward them, and several small stones materialized in his palm. A quick count seamed to confirm that there was a stone for each of them.

  “Your task is to acquire one of my stones and return it to me. But be warned, this may be more difficult then it first appears,” at his words the stones in his palm glowed, rising into the air before shooting off in different directions. There was a moment of hesitation among the crowd before several of them sprinted off into the fields, a handful followed their lead, trailing close behind. But a few looked around in confusion, some looking slightly distressed before walking off into the fields. In the end only her and Ignis were left standing in the small clearing around the tree. He gazed down at her, a quizzical look in his eye.

  “It appears your siblings have all begun their quest for the stones. Why haven’t you joined them child? Have you given up already?” his tone was teasing and made her feel a little self-conscious. Why was she just standing here? She knew why. Looking up at the massive man she took a deep breath, then spoke.

  “I want to leave,” Ignis smiled and nodded his head, as if he understood completely.

  “Of course child, that is what this test is for,” he stated it so matter of fact, as if that was obvious, “Completing it will open the way for you,” she mulled his words over for a minute.

  “So, if I want to leave I have to find one of the stones? What happens if I don't?” Ignis smiled at her, amused, as if she were a curious five year old.

  “You must complete your test to move on. If you do not, your soul will return to the stream till it is ready to attempt rebirth again,” she considered his words. While she really didn't want to be ‘reborn’, having her soul sent back to the ‘stream’ didn't sound any better. Was that some sort of pool of consciousness? Whatever it was it would no doubt put her even further from getting home. But was being reborn really any better? What kind of world would she even be born into? Would she be able to find a way back home?

  The truth was she had no idea. But whatever world she was going to end up in, her chances had to be better then floating around in some weird astral plane soup. She looked around, there was no indication of where the stones had gone and they had shot off too fast to track. Turning back to the tree she opened her mouth to ask Ignis a question and found the clearing was empty, with no sign of the older man.

  “Ok. Guess I’m on my own then,” with that she picked a random direction and began her trek into the grasslands. She meandered through the fields aimlessly, unsure of what to do when she felt something. It was a sort of pressure, almost like a pull in her chest. Ignoring it she took a few more steps. The pull became sharper, it was definitely a tugging sensation, like a string was attached to her breast bone. The sensation pulled to her left, she paused considering it. Was this part of the test? What else did she really have to go on? With a shrug she reoriented herself and let the pull guide her.

  As she followed the tug in her chest she noticed the grass becoming steadily taller. Where it had previously been roughly waist high it had crept to shoulder height. After another fifteen minutes of walking the grass was now above her head, obscuring the view of her surroundings. Had there been sections of grass this tall near the tree? She didn't remember seeing any, everything had looked fairly uniform from what she remembered. But then again this place seemed to work on its own strange internal logic.

  A rustling sound drew her attention to her right and she froze. What was that? A wild animal? She hadn't seen any animals since she arrived in this place, just other weird people, Nardi, Ignis and . . . her stomach clenched at the memory of the shadowy figure. It couldn't be back. Nardi had killed it. Right? The rustling grew louder, whatever was out there, it was getting closer. She took a few slow steps backward wishing she had some sort of weapon to defend herself with. Her heel struck something heavy, looking down she saw it was a tree branch. Quickly she scooped it up and held it out in front of her like a sword, hoping it would be enough to at least slow down whatever was coming.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The sound of rustling grass grew louder and she thought she faintly heard something else. Voices? There was a pause, then the rustling returned far louder and more aggressive, accompanied by pounding. Whatever was hiding in the grass had started running and was heading straight for her. She dug her feet into the ground and tightened her grip on the branch, focusing on the sound. As it grew closer she was able to pick out the exact wall of grass it was going to erupt from, angling her body sideways, she held the branch like a baseball bat. She might only get one shot, so she needed to time it right. Waiting for the exact moment whatever was out there erupted from the grass.

  Inhaling deeply, she counted her breaths to calm her mind and focus as her foe approached. One, two, three, four, five- the grass parted and she let the branch fly with all the strength she could manage. Crack! The sound was startlingly loud as her strike connected, sending her target reeling backward. Followed by a very colorful string of curses. A few realizations struck her in quick succession. The first being that what erupted from the planes was not some shadowy nightmare creature, but two people. The one she struck, and was now sprawled on the ground, being responsible for the stream of curses, while the other was still hiding in the grass looking slightly terrified. The second was that the person she had struck was still conscious despite taking the full brunt of her offensive maneuvers to their skull. But the final, and most interesting to her, was that she was able to understand the very creative string of profanities still streaming from her victims mouth as they held their head.

  “What the fuck is your problem?! I didn't do shit to you!” the voice coming from the one on the ground sounded masculine. He looked up at her, anger clear on his face. It was the closest she had been to the other residents of this strange place. They had the same orange and red skin that resembled churning magma that she now had, and sported the same smooth round heads. Looking at the pair she realized they were nearly identical, there were no distinguishing features about their bodies. In fact from the neck down there was no detail at all, just the vague shape of a person, like a shadow puppet.

  The only exception was their faces, the features of eyes, nose and mouth clearly visible, but they looked more like they were carved from a chunk of molten rock. She pressed a hand to her cheek. Was that what she looked like? Her blunt force victim finally managed to get to his feet, and now stood less than a foot away. He did his best to tower over her and give off an air of intimidation. It didn't really work as there was maybe a two inch difference in their heights. “So?! What do you have to say for yourself?!” he puffed out his chest and they stared at each other for a moment.

  “Ummm, my bad? You ok?” she gave a half hearted shrug, the boy looked shocked and proceeded to open then close his mouth several times, as if trying to figure out what to say.

  “That's it?!” he finally yelled at her, throwing his hands wide incredulously. His follower had quietly emerged from the grass and stood a few feet behind him, mirroring his expression of anger.

  “Were you expecting something else?” she asked, genuinely not sure what answer he was looking for. This question only frustrated him more and he stomped his feet and threw his arms out in an exaggerated manner.

  “Oh I don’t know? ‘Sorry for trying to smash your skull open?’ or ‘Please forgive me! I’m a terrible person and should be locked away!’” as he spoke - Grumpy as she decided to call him - pitched his voice high in an attempt to mock her.

  “That's right!” his companion finally spoke up, revealing they were also male, “What kind of psycho just goes around jumping people with a club?!” he did his best to yell at her while still being firmly hidden behind Grumpy.

  “You two do realize you were the ones who charged at me, right?” the two of them flinched at this, exchanging a quick glance, “That was also after making enough noise to raise the dead in this very tall grass with no visibility. For all I knew you were wild animals or monsters. I was defending myself the only way I could,” she folded her arms and stared them down. The pair looked much more deflated now, Grumpy rubbed his head looking almost embarrassed.

  “Ok, I get your point. But that wasn't what we were trying to do, and you rung my bell pretty good! Are you in the Major Leagues or something? That swing hurt like hell!” she snorted at that and shook her head.

  “That's fair. I am sorry about that. And nah, I couldn't even make it on my little league team,” they both laughed, while his companion glared at her. Then what he said really sunk in. Baseball. “You guys are from earth right? Do you remember how you got here?” they perked up at this.

  “We are!” Grumpy replied, then furrowed his brow, “But, I don't have an answer about how I ended up here. Last thing I remember was going to bed, then waking up in this weird black void. There were colors and all kinds of weird shit,” he waved his hands as he spoke, “then there was this light and a giant ass tree, like huge! And I ended up here!” she listened intently, everything he said was almost beat for beat what she had gone through. Minus the attack by the shadow creatures.

  “Was it the same for you?” she asked Grumpy’s side kick and he flinched at being addressed directly, before he crossed his arms and stared her down.

  “Ya, that's right,” she was honestly impressed he managed to put that much condescension into only three words. Grumpy laughed and threw an arm around his shoulders.

  “Don't let this sour puss bother you. We met on the way to the tree where that flame haired guy threw the rocks. He’s a bit twitchy but he’s cool,” said twitchy friend wriggled attempting to slip the arm around his shoulders, but failed, “You looking for the stones out here too?” Grumpy questioned and she nodded in response.

  “I wasn't really sure what to do so I just started walking. But then I got this weird feeling in my chest. Like a pulling sensation?” she placed her hand on her chest and Grumpy nodded enthusiastically.

  “We had that same feeling! It just kept getting stronger so we figured we must be close to the stone!” his nervous companion nodded in agreement.

  “And if it’s close, that stones ours! Understand?” the twitchy one asserted, jabbing a finger in her direction for emphasis. She ignored him, addressing Grumpy instead.

  “Makes sense. At least as much as anything else around here,” she paused a moment, focusing on the tugging sensation once more, “It feels like I need to go that way,” she pointed slightly off to her left.

  “Mine feels like that way,” Grumpy stated pointing behind her,” Guess this is where we part ways. But it's been nice finding someone else we can talk to. Whatever is going on, maybe we’ll see each other again,” Grumpy offered his hand and she took it.

  “I hope so. Be careful though, this place can be dangerous. I’ve seen some weird shadows,” her warning fell on deaf ears as the nervous one rolled his eyes. Clearly assuming she was just trying to scare them.

  “Were fine, make sure you don't die or anything,” he grabbed Grumpy by his other arm and dragged him away into the tall grass. They exchanged one final wave before the pair disappeared.

  She chuckled to herself, they were a strange pair to be sure, but she felt more at ease then she had since this crazy journey began. It had been comforting talking to people in the same position, with a connection to her home. Their energy and enthusiasm made her hopeful somehow. Taking a deep breath she reoriented on the pull in her chest and plunged into the waving grass.